Saturday, September 10, 2011

Condoronto

In the dieing days of summer I have found myself walking my old exhibiting haunts of Queen St. W. to find it's gone. What once was a thriving and fruitful scene is now all but abandoned. Even the existing galleries have nothing that is moving forward. Why? The scene is scattered. Why? Condoronto is settling in en mass. Divide and conquer. Thank you Ford bros. You got the the dough do as you will. For a culture to move forward like a military unit it requires unison. The present political cloud that hangs over us is dark and oppressive. We need cultural communities much like SOHO, DUMBO, or Chelsea in NYC. For one it offers an environment that is simply easier to navigate. Potential art buyers can easily walk from gallery to gallery and enjoy a good coffee in between. Now one has to drive from a small cluster  of galleries to another. Besides Queen west there use to be Yorkville,  again a corpse in the dust of Condoronto. You might argue that the distillery district has replaced the other previous communities. No!! It is a self contained community, yes but it is just one and a very high end one at that. Nothing wrong there, but other self contained communities are needed for the visual and new media arts to flourish and make us a world class city that recognizes the value that unified communities offer all of us. What to do? Good question. Rail against Condoronto? Good luck.

1 comment:

judih said...

A dark cloud descends over a city that should be radiating light. May the artists be heard and seen soon again.